A New Years Rant

Alas, my stay in California has been sans internet, aside from my phone. My neighbors used to have wireless, but they have moved, leaving me to use my parents' archaic dial-up AOL connection, which is slower than my iphone... Troubling, eh? However, I'm just brimming with musings from the last few weeks, which will probably explodify by the time I return to NY.

1st order of business: Moving away from California has finally given me the ability to appreciate it. For the last 3-4 years of living here, I felt stifled by my school, frustrated by my parents, and totally screwed by my lack of friends. I hated the weather, I hated my schools, and I was unhappy with my pseudo-friends. But now, 4.5 years later, it's really not so bad. Yes, my house does not have heat, which means that practicing sucks, I have 5 blankets on the bed, and I often walk around with chattering teeth. But that's just at night. My house is small and cozy, with brightly colored walls, and cute decorations, and delightful gardens. It is filled to the brim with books and magazines, and frogs. (my mum collections frog shit, my dad and i call it) My parents are quite excellent in medium sized bits (2-3 weeks is best) and my cats are well behaved. Sometimes you have to leave somewhere to finally understand it. California is a conflicted state: there are yuppie socialites in the south and superficial hollywood mavens, lower class laborers and normal folk in the middle, and the best in liberal thinkers in the north. It's pretty much its own country. I used to hate this one demographic: the wealthy socialite married to a doctor/lawyer who gives their gorgeous offspring land rovers/mercedes benz for their 16th birthday. Now I see that it is such a small demographic of what California has that it's really not so bad anymore. I was just drowning in the mind pollution, the fitness magazines, the desire to skinnier, prettier- anything other than what you are. I only now have been able to reflect a little on that.

2nd order of business: New Year's is a fake holiday and I have never really liked it. Ok, shoot me- it's an excuse for most people to party hardcore, and maybe I'm just jealous. I live in Pasadena, the home of the Rose parade and Rose Bowl, and every New Years, at least 1 million people come for the parade and the game, leaving their trash and bad manners behind. On New Years Eve, I've been hit by tortillas and silly string while driving by these vagrants, and I've had eggs thrown at my car. Then comes the parade: I know it's a great source of revenue for the city...1 million people have to buy a few things I suppose, but the parade is run by people who are not really contemporary in their thought processes.Every year, a court of Rose princesses are chosen for their elocution, looks, and grades, and I'm always amazed that every year the girls have flawless skin, are a size 6 or less, and are relatively boring. Such an archaic practice depresses me, and I'm waiting for a transvestite to try out for the position. On one hand, it is an affirming thing to empower young women and congratulate them for their academic merits and community involvement. Yet, I feel that the contest must be slightly biased, because apparently, plain looking girls don't get good grades or bake cookies for old folks. I have always been annoyed by their tradition, and for the record, didn't even bother trying out a) because I wouldn't win b) because i'm neither thin nor beautiful enough. Anyway, I don't know that I'd really want to go to Disneyland to hang out with the USC football team. That's a little weird. Aside from my feminist rant, the whole parade gets a bit old. You've seen one flower covered robot, you've seen them all. The themes are all pretty innocuous, but it's just flowers smooshed onto mechanical devices. It was cool when I was 7, but I'm over it. I'm amazed that millions of people worldwide wake up to watch the parade when it's the SAME every year. There's like 30 marching bands, a bunch of equestrian teams, some floats about such original tenets as "friendship" and "caring," and a couple of vintage cars. One day soon, hopefully, I will not be here for the parade- maybe I'll be in New York, or Boston, or anywhere else. If New Years is about change, about growth, and about resolutions, I'd rather not perpetuate the feelings of the Rose Parade.
But, in other news, 2009 is upon us, and we have almost reached a decade in a new millenium! That is quite exciting. Our economy is dreadful, businesses all over are failing, and we have named a man named Obama to be our political, social, economic, and spiritual messiah. I hope that his presidency isn't too rough, since everything is dreadful right now. (Polaroids are gone! All is lost.) The road to the apocalypse is paved with plastic bags, styrafoam, and landfills. Our planet is in need, no one has money, and we need to stop blowing things up. So let's just hope that Obama can be all that we want him to be, and that we can do all the things we want to, from losing weight, to loving more. There's nothing better to do anyway.